Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht on why football is just as much an art form as anything else

Bright Ideas

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 23, 2007

The unlikeliest fan at all four of Stanford's home football games in September would have to be Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. Raised on German soccer, Gumbrecht, 59,has been so moved by what he's seen at Stanford Stadium that it inspired scholarly examination in book form, "In Praise of Athletic Beauty" (Harvard University Press, 2006).

"I'm a professor of comparative literature, specializing in French, Spanish and Italian literature. I also teach philosophy. I arrived from Germany in 1989, knowing I can't live without team sports. Of course, you can watch soccer here, but you want an environment where people get excited about it and can competently talk about it. I'm an American citizen now and very proud of it, but Americans talking about soccer are as bad as Europeans talking about baseball. They don't get it. So I made this rational decision. I decided 'I'm going to become a football fan.'

My first game was against Notre Dame, in 1989. It was sold out. They lost barely, but Ed McCaffrey scored the first touchdown. It was a beautiful touchdown pass. I found it very intelligent and very exciting right from the start, but I didn't get it. It took me two or three games to get the rules.

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Illustrated portrait of Hans Gumbrecht for the BRIGHT IDEAS column of 8/26/07 issue of SUNDAY MAGAZINE -- FIRST REPRODUCTION RIGHTS ONLY; OK to post on sfgate with article

Illustrated portrait of Hans Gumbrecht for the BRIGHT IDEAS column of 8/26/07 issue of SUNDAY MAGAZINE -- FIRST REPRODUCTION RIGHTS ONLY; OK to post on sfgate with article

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht on why football is just as much an art form as anything else

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I always found this thing stupid when Europeans say 'American football is just a heap of meat,' or 'it's very violent.' Violence is legitimate in a football game. I cannot remember any moment when I thought 'this is vulgar' or 'this is an ugly game.' I liked it from the start.

Thebook tries to answer the question of what is it that fascinates people so much in sports.

I'm claiming it is centrally an aesthetic experience that is no different than the more classical forms of aesthetic experience. I'm not saying that sports fans should from now on read Kant.

I'm a relatively structured person. I know my budget, but I spend too much money on season tickets every year, and way too much time. I support Stanford football. That's my tragic first allegiance. I think I am the only humanist on the athletic board. I have a soccer team in Germany, Dortmund, which is also a tragic team. They normally disappoint. For reasons that I can never explain, I care about Pakistan cricket. I care about the Giants and the Yankees in baseball. In hockey, I care about the Canadiens. I have Sharks season tickets but I could care less about the Sharks.

Stanford football has lost the student support. When Stanford had its great football tradition in the '20s and '30s, Stanford was at best a third-tier university. Now this is clearly the best moment in Stanford history. This year, more students with Harvard and Stanford offers came to Stanford than to Harvard. There are faculty who feel having a Division I football team and, God forbid, a successful one, doesn't go with the Stanford image.

My son was quarterback at Gunn High School. He had a game where he made five touchdown passes. I saw it and I still think 'I would give all my academic or professional glory' for one such afternoon.

My most successful book is on a year that's explicitly an unimportant year, 1926. It's called 'In 1926.' I wrote that book and I was astonished when Harvard Press wanted it. Now it's translated into five languages and it's sold 50,000 copies, which for a humanities professor is insane."